Abstract

What most contemporary theorists know as 'gender theory' has its roots in feminist theory, and that, in turn, arises from a 'disobedient epistemology' - from looking at phenomena through lenses that do not permit one to see only expected or conventional patterns of meaning. Feminist epistemology and theory is one such divergent view of reality in its focus on the disregarded categories of women and gender. There is a long and honourable tradition of feminist thinking and theorising which refuses to see society and the world through patriarchal eyes, and which interrogates relations of gender and power in society, in the academy and in discourse. This tradition is represented in Carole McCann and Seung-kyung Kim's Feminist theory reader: Local and global perspectives.